Fairness not a pre-existing condition

Fairness not a pre-existing condition

Let us give thanks Nov. 28 for the early Christmas which became, instead, Halloween.

Obamacare, that red-suited monstrosity created ostensibly to dispense benefits upon a hollow-eyed populace, turned, with a click of a mouse, into a costumed freak obliterating everyone’s insurance plans. With $600 million, the government could not produce a workable website. Yet it wants to manage an additional one-sixth of the American economy, on top of what it already controls.

Healthcare.gov is a gargantuan glitch, but the problem is more fundamental. Obamacare can succeed only if young, healthy people sign up for it. But how can they? A quarter of adults under age 28 are unemployed; college graduates owe an aggregate of one trillion dollars in student debt. And why would the young pay a three-thousand-dollar premium when they can simply pay a fine of a $100s? Eventually, when they get hurt or sick, they can claim a pre-existing condition, and the insurance industry is obliged to wince, act stupid, and sell them coverage — retroactively, in effect — at the regular rate.

The rationale behind Obamacare goes against human nature. Its business model violates the principles of economics.

Imagine a Rube Goldberg apparatus inside a Salvador Dali painting. That’s Obamacare. All I can do now is sit back, and watch the system go haywire. I’ll be all right. I’m a federal worker; my plan is exempted. I know it isn’t fair, but fairness, under Obama, is not a pre-existing condition.

Alexander Lee

West Chicago